Tranquil setting, lovely rooms and attentive, helpful staff.
We had a superior double room with double aspect bay windows and an enormous, king-sized bed. The rooms were nicely heated (not too hot).
There's a "fine dining" room but this was at New Year and after days of Christmas functions, we wanted something less formal so we ate in the bistro which was good.
The breakfasts are great: forego the usual big-breakfast fare and have the muffins with bacon and poached egg with Hollandaise sauce!

A superb imposing house in the most exquisite location right on the banks of the iconic River Tweed and in the grounds of the historic Dryburgh Abbey. You'd think they'd milk it. You'd think the quality inside would begin to approach the remarkable location. You'd think that a house of such history and quality would ooze inherent standards of service and behaviour. Wrong ! Sloppy , grudging , disorganised and ill managed with the welcoming standards of British Rail . Only one cost reduced room open in an enormous building to serve miscellaneous teas, drinks , burgers and whatever , while offering a rather expensive lunch / dinner service for others ! Motorway Services at the Savoy is a failed concept ! That said , the chef runs a good ship. Pity the rest let him down so badly ! My guess is he will be gone by the time you read this !

My wife and I are just back from this wonderful hotel where we spent 2 nights over the hogmanay period. We had a fantastic time and that was very much to do with the wonderful staff. They were very attentive and nothing was any bother to them even though they were under enormous pressure to provide all the guests with the best service possible. We ate extremely well and all the dishes we had were of a very high standard indeed. Our room was spacious and clean and tidy. The pool and sauna was just the right size and was a welcome warm up after a walk and drive around the local area. The Hogmanay Gala evening was superbly organised and we brought in 2012 under a magical firework display. We will definately be making a return visit. Thanks to everyone at Dryburgh Abbey Hotel and all the best for 2012.

After booking our 1 night stay I made the mistake of coming on here and then reading reviews! Although there are some very good reviews there was some very negative reviews as well which I found disturbing.

However I decided to keep the booking open and my Wife and I stayed there on the 27th December. I made the initial mistake of heading to Melrose and thought the hotel was near by which it isnt, its approx 6miles away. This was no big deal to us as we just wanted somewhere to chill out after Christmas. A quick call to the hotel and very friendly staff guided us the rest of the way.

The location of the hotel is excellant with cracking views onto the Tweed with nice grounds surrounding the hotel. I had brought my shotgun with me as we were shooting the following day and they have excellant facilities for locking your gun in your own cabinet as well as access to a drying room. They had even supplied some gear for cleaning/oiling your gun which was a nice touch.

We had a very good sized double with a superking bed, one small negative is that the bathroom kinda let the room down as it was a little dated (spotless and clean but shower could have been better), not quite sure what the designer of the room was thinking when he placed the electric towel rail right next to the toilet though! We moved our towels onto the hooks on the wall which was fine.
The rooms are not ultra modern which would look wrong in an old hotel such as this in anycase. They were very clean and we had no issues with our room.

We went for afternoon tea which was lovely, very tasty ciabatta with some very very nice cakes and scones. I read on here by someone else that 1 between 2 would be ample and we should really have taken note as there was too much for each of us and we left a few scones and cakes between us!

We headed to the pool and sauna later in the afternoon. The pool is very nice although small as you would expect from a country hotel of this size, it was big enough though not that it was an issue as we had the pool to ourselves most of the time! The sauna looks very new and was spotless inside. One point to note is that you need to walk past the pool to get to the changing rooms and some selfish clown had done so wearing muddy shoes so had left muddy foot prints all the way into the changing areas! Not the hotels fault but maybe a sign on the access door to the pool asking for people to remove their shoes would be an idea? Also keys for the changing lockers would be a bonus :) Wasnt keen on the idea of leaving my clothes and watch in an unlocked locker. We were more than happy with both the pool and the sauna.
The highlight of our stay was without doubt the food in the evening at the Tweed! I was shocked to read the report below from Nickt551840!! The food was SUPERB. We love our food and have visited many Michelin star places. From a food point of view this place could easily compete with the others we have visited. They have 2 AA Rosettes and their Chefs are an asset to the place! The main reason I fear they will never get a Michelin star (if they even want one) is their staff are not on the ball with the food being served up. In my opinion the Head Chef needs to spend some time training his front of house staff on his fantastic food, the girl serving us was lovely and I have no critisism of her other than her lack of knowledge on the food being served. The Pigeon I had to start was brilliant as was my Wifes shin of beef dish. I then had Pheasant which was superb and the jus it came with was devine! My Wifes Monkfish was also very nice although when she tasted my Pheasant she regretted not getting that! Our sweets were also fantastic. I had the pear dish was probably the best dessert I have been served anywhere! I honestly thought the flavours were magic! My Wife was also over the moon with her Lemon dessert which was very bizarre but incredibly tasty all at the same time :)
When we complimented the staff of the fantastic food we had just eaten we were surprised to learn it was the head chefs night off and his 2nd in command had been in charge!

Breakfast in the morning was also spot on, with my full Scottish being very well cooked and not in the slightest greasy, my Wife had the poached eggs on muffins which she really enjoyed.
Drinks and the bottle of wine we had were all very reasonable indeed considering there is no other place to go at night! This was surprising as I expected to pay over the odds for alcohol which was not the case. They have a brilliant selection of malt whisky, brandy and a very good selection of beers to drink which I appreciated!

Overall I would say read the reviews on here but do not hesitate to book up as you will not be unhappy with your stay if our stay is anything to go on! The food will blow you away!
We will be back and if I was ever in the area again driving through I would pop in just for the food even if I couldnt stay the night!